Pushing the Envelope of High School Learning

Phillip Deutsch of La Canada Flintridge recently disproved a well-known scientific theory for measuring the shapes of organic molecules.

Arjun Suri of Fresno constructed protein models that could be used to better engineer drugs to target HIV and AIDS.

Moriah Nachbaur of Redwood City experimented with plant genes and found that there may be a way to make corn and other crops more pest-resistant.

The experiments were different but the three individuals have two things in common: They’re all 17-year-old high school seniors with a passion for scientific research, and they are the California finalists in what is considered one of the most prestigious science competitions in the nation.

The Intel Science Talent Search chose 40 high school seniors from 15 states as finalists in its national science competition that will conclude in Washington next month. More than 1,500 high school seniors originally submitted projects.

Year after year, New York has sent more finalists -- 15 this year -- than any other state because it has so many specialized schools, a spokesman for the competition said. In second place this year are California and Maryland, each sending three students to the final competition.

Phillip, Arjun and Moriah have a chance to take home the top prize of a $100,000 scholarship. The other top 10 scholarships range from $75,000 down to $20,000. Finalists who don’t place in the top 10 will receive $5,000 scholarships, and everyone gets a notebook computer.

Phillip is in La Canada High School’s Option Program, which lets students take a certain number of classes on campus and finish their learning elsewhere, such as through college classes or part-time jobs. Phillip has been working in the computer and chemistry labs at Caltech under professor John Roberts.

Roberts gave Phillip a problem: Test a method of measuring organic molecules proposed by an English scientist and see if it works. Phillip proved that it didn’t; he then came up with a method that did.

Phillip wants to become a computer scientist, not an organic chemist like Roberts, but he liked working on this project.

“It was the challenge and all the things I had to learn,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what the application is, it’s the work that’s important. Work is where I use my computer and mathematic skills.”

Roberts praised the research.

“It was a completely honest report, it was straightforward. I thought it was a very good way of doing it,” Roberts said. “He’s certainly a better mathematician than I am.”

Phillip, whom some people describe as shy, wasn’t eager to boast about his achievements, but those who know him were quick to praise his work.

“He’s probably one of the brightest kids the school has,” said Mary Hufstedler, his advisor at La Canada High. “He certainly looks at the world differently. He’s just extremely bright.”

Phillip’s mother, Dr. Jeanne Wallace, said her son always has stood apart from other students.

For example, at the beginning of every school year, he couldn’t wait to get the syllabi so he could read the textbooks before classes started.

“They were pretty much done within the first month of school,” said Wallace, who is a pulmonary and sleep medicine specialist at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. Her husband, Dr. Andrew Deutsch, is a radiologist at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster.

The only class Phillip takes at school is Advanced Placement English, and the rest of his school day is spent at Caltech. He also takes an online math course through Stanford University for high school credit.

Although science and reading are his passions, he makes time for playing on the computer outside of the lab, he said. The desk in his bedroom is covered with stacks of about 60 computer games.

Over winter break, his family took a trip through Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

“I spent most of my time in the hotel room reading about quantum physics,” Phillip said. “I guess I am a nerd.”

Arjun also comes from a family of doctors. He said his parents, grandparents and most of his aunts and uncles are doctors, but he doesn’t plan to be one.

“There are a lot of benefits, but I think I want to do something different,” the Clovis West High School senior said.

Arjun said he’d rather give himself time to travel than pursue the same profession his entire life.

But scientific research is in his future.

For the Intel competition, Arjun and Grace Rosenquist, a neurobiology professor at UC Davis, sifted through millions of amino acid sequences. He and the professor found a pattern and made a model of it. Arjun said the result of his study could be used to engineer drugs that would block HIV from entering human cells.

“This is by far the most interesting thing I’ve been doing in advanced research,” Arjun said. “I was interested in how this would affect drugs and drug design. It’s something that has beneficial applications to people.”

Moriah has won prizes at high school and county science fairs. In middle school, she observed the feeding habits of the hummingbirds around her home in Redwood City.

Moriah attended a national science convention in Seattle as a freshman and was inspired to do something bigger.

“All the information about Dolly the sheep had just come out, and biotechnology was really kicking,” she said. “I was so excited because it was all new.”

After many rejections, she was accepted by Mendel Biotechnology, a Hayward, Calif., company, to work in its lab. She has spent the last three summers there.

With the help of mentors at Mendel, Moriah tested plant genes and found that the way certain genes work in a small mustard seed plant also works in tobacco plants.

She said her project has “ridiculously wide-reaching potential applications. It could work to improve crops, help feed Third World countries. There’s so many positives.”

Moriah said she wants to be a pharmacologist and develop drugs.

Moriah has been accepted at Stanford University for the fall. She is waiting to hear from Harvard and MIT before deciding where to go.

Arjun was accepted at Harvard and said he will most likely go there, but he is still waiting to hear from Stanford, Yale and Columbia universities.

Phillip won’t be moving far from his current lab. He has been accepted at Caltech, where he’ll study computer science and continue to work in Roberts’ lab.

Said Phillip: “I’m looking forward to everything.”